Savage Hands-On

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We get busy with S2 Games lovely action/RTS hybrid.

By Dan Adams

The two most popular genres on the PC sit as strategy in the top spot followed by first-person shooters. So it's no wonder that developers have been trying to find that perfect mix of the two for a while now. Whether that be with games like Rainbow Six that takes planning strategy into account or Sacrifice that blended a little bit of action into the strategy mix, they're usually pretty interesting games. What we don't usually see however is a traditional style RTS where one player is in charge of the building, researching and strategy, and all of the other players make up the armies. That's exactly what S2 Games is bringing to the table with Savage.

The first time I saw this game, it was very early in production and there were only about six of us playing on a map. This was fun. In fact, it was fun enough that it immediately catapulted itself onto the top of my "games to watch" list for a while. While it certainly seems like a daunting task to blend those two genres together in a way that would appeal to players of both genres where all could have fun regardless of their role on the team, the team of 7 seems to have found a winning solution.

Savage has just gone into a new stage of beta testing by adding 2000 more people into the mix. And from the first time the game was shown until now, there have been a lot of changes made both to the engine running it, and to the gameplay balance itself. While we just saw the game at E3 and got to play a little bit, there just wasn't enough time to really sink into it and take a look at the changes up close. Thankfully, the beta is affording us some personal time with the game that is turning out to be quite a bit of fun.

When beginning a game, players will have very little to choose from as far as a character goes. You'll begin with your regular warrior, that comes equipped with two tomahawk type axes by default and that's it. The only other weapon available at the start are bows and arrows. After picking the warrior, players will have the choice to choose between "command" and "spawn". If you choose the command position (which only one person can be so you better get in the game quick), you'll be taken to an overhead view of the map the match is taking place on.

The commander's immediate responsibility is to begin harvesting stone, which at the moment is the main cost for both building and researching. This works just like you would expect from any RTS. The commander has the ability to make worker units that he or she has control over. They're given orders in the same way that any normal unit in an RTS would be. So imagine selecting a peon in WarCraft and sending it to gather wood and you'll see what it takes to gather stone. At the same time, the commander would be wise to begin production on basic weapon research so that the guys out in the field have something better to fight with as well as begin construction on buildings that will allow for upgrades to even better weapons in the future.

Meanwhile, down on the field of play, all of the "units" controlled by actual people, will begin their tasks. These players will immediately start going out to kill some of the computer controlled creeps around the landscape. These animals, which can range from little rabid looking squirrel things to gigantic gorillas, will be each player's first chance at getting money for future weapon and unit purchases. It used to be that players would just automatically get money from a kill (of these animals or enemy players) but now the victims die and money bags and ammo fly out from the corpse and little the ground. Only the player that actually got the last shot in for the kill will be able to pick up the loot.